Minecraft and GTA IV on a laptop what computer specs do i need.

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GeoffM604

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Mar 26, 2013
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Ive searched the internet a bit on this question, but the threads are kind of a mess. The question usually is about a specific laptop and most of those are not being sold a year later, not to mention are now older laptops. I'm buying a new laptop and the only real intensive thing it will have to do is be able to play GTA IV and Minecraft. What kind of specs would you say I need to run both games at at least medium or higher settings. obviously i could buy a high end laptop and call it a day but my real world budget is about 700 bucks not including taxes. Thanks for any help
 
I never played Minecraft, but my Lenovo IdeaPad Y470 with a Sandy Bridge (previous generation) Core i5-2410m with a nVidia GT 550m was able to play GTA IV on medium settings. Forget high settings. Even high-end desktop PCs with a graphics card equal to the amount of money you are looking to spend on the laptop will not run the game on high.

A word of warning though. Make sure you get a laptop with good ventilation because GTA IV can cause the CPU to get real hot. After about 2 hours my CPU hit 99C and started to throttle down. In general, I would avoid 14" laptops since they typically do not have much space for really good airflow. Also avoid Lenovo IdeaPads because the bottom of the laptop is referred to as a "thermal panel" by Lenovo themselves. The purpose is so that as little heat will be transferred to underside of the laptop. I placed the overheated Y470 on my bare skin lap and it only felt warm. However, the bottom of the laptop is not designed to take advantage of any cooling pads. I bought a cooling pad (CoolerMaster U2 ... something...) which is a good cooling pad, but it did nothing for the Y470.


The following 15.6" Acer Aspire V3-571G-6622 ($599) is an example of a laptop capable of playing GTA IV. The i5-3230m CPU is a little bit more powerful than my CPU and the nVidia GT 730m is definitely more powerful than the GT 550m in my laptop.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314016


However, you need to research about how hot the CPU gets. Do not rely on statements like, "It only feels a little warm when I play games". The Lenovo Y470 only felt a bit warm (underside and the keyboard as well) when it was overheated.


The following Acer Aspire V3-551G-X419 ($529) is a less expensive laptop that should also be able to play GTA IV. However, it is not as powerful as the 1st laptop. It has the AMD A10-4600m which is a quad core CPU. However, AMD CPUs are not as powerful as Intel CPUs. At the same clock speed, an Intel Ivy Bridge generation Core i3/i5/i7 CPU is about 20% more powerful than an AMD Trinity generation CPU. The only advantage is that the A10 is a quad core CPU while the i5 is a dual core CPU, but overall the A10 is weaker. It also comes with a Radeon HD 7670m which is weaker than the nVidia GT 550m in my Y470, and most certainly weaker than the GT 730m. But it should still be enough to play GTA IV.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215974
 

stmaki16

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To be honest i am going to say what almost everyone else says and build your own rig, but its all up to your needs and what you can do and there is one laptop that is a bout 650 bucks and it will play games that are even harder to run such as battlefield 3 on high graphics and here it is---http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312431 Enjoy and Good Luck!
 

GeoffM604

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wow thanks for the response jaguarskx. I have a question would you say any of these are considerably better choices or not worth spending the extra money on.

http://www.ncix.ca/products/?sku=77097&vpn=NP550P5C-S03CA&manufacture=Samsung&promoid=1280

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/toshiba-toshiba-satellite-s855-15-6-laptop-silver-amd-a10-4600m-1tb-hdd-8gb-ram-windows-8-s855d-00d/10238837.aspx

http://www.ncix.ca/products/?sku=80039

I'm trying to stay away from HP or Lenovo i mean every company has its horror stories it's just that ive experienced them first hand with Lenovo and HP.

this I reluctantly am considering this as well Lenovo Y500 http://shop.lenovo.com/us/laptops/ideapad/y-series


Thanks as well stmaki16 i understand your argument or reasoning a desktop is of course the way to go for gaming. I have basic needs other then these two games and if I ever decided that I wanted to get into more higher graphic intensive games I would defaintly go the desktop route. I like the flex ability of a laptop and my needs for the most part fit into owning one. Plus ive come to accustomed to having one. So I'd eventually have to get one. So i'd rather own a laptop first before a desktop first.
 
The MSI CX61 0NF-459US is the most powerful laptop in the 1st set of links. I would say the Samsung comes in second and then the Toshiba. Not sure why the Toshiba has a Radeon HD 7610m crossfired with the integrated Radoen HD 7760G core... it seems to be a weak combination which is why I rank it last.

The Lenovo Y500 is certainly a popular choice. They are giving you a lot of performance for the price you pay. I don't know what your horror story with Lenovo is, but it is definitely the best (and most expensive) of the 4 laptops you are considering.

I know from many reviews that the Y500 runs hot while gaming, but those were the GT 650m SLI versions. With a single GT 750m, the heat output should be less in the current version. By how much I don't know. I don't even know of the internal temps of the CPU.

You can click the following link that discusses internal temps of the Y500 and Gt 750m. There are not that many responses since this version of the Y500 is relatively new.

http://live-forums.com/178139/Calling-all-Y400-Y500-GT-750M-owners.html
 
^^^

Hmmm... Curious, the Radeon HD 7670M can be crossfired (dual graphics) with the integrated Radeon HD 7660G. Yet, there is no mention of that at all. Perhaps it is just the HD 7670M by itself and the HD 7660G has been disabled...

In any case, the nVidia GT 645M is significantly more powerful than the HD 7670M by itself or crossfired. If you want to "future proof" for games, then you are better off spending the $750 for the MSI laptop with the GT 645M. You can say yourself $150 by going with the Asus or similarly priced laptop, but you my find yourself buying another laptop sooner rather than later if playing games is important.
 
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